In January this year I travelled to Togo, west Africa, for a three month volunteer placement leading a team of 10 volunteers, 5 UK and 5 Togolese.The placement was through ICS (International Citizen Service) funded by the UK governments department for International Development. Our work was based at the local YMCA in Atakpame through the charity Y Care International, who believe in "giving young people the opportunity and support they need, so they can spark transformation in their communities and countries".Our main development projects focussed on Education, teaching within schools, two Local Unions and classes within the Prison. Other activities included the issuing of Birth Certificates and Nationality certificates to young people in need, awareness raising within the community, installation of Tippy Taps and weekly activities with young people at the YMCA youth centre.

​We taught 487 students within our English and Health Clubs/Classes between 4 different schools.Through the three months I spent in Togo I have gained knowledge on how Education is a positive and powerful tool for change in this world!

Teaching in Prison - Throughout our placement we spent 49.5 hours teaching between both the male and female Prison in Atakpame. Topics we taught:

English and French

Health, Hygiene and Sanitation

Civic Education (how to be a good citizen, respecting the law, responsibility of a citizen)

Within the Prison a class size would usually be around 20-30 people who were eager to take part in the lesson, we provided notebooks and pens and a blackboard for each class. There was no separate room for us to teach within the male or female prison cell so in the male Prison it was difficult to project our voices over the other 300+ detainees who were getting on with their day to day activities within the same space. None the less the detainees would listen attentively and ask you to repeat things for them.For me working within the prison was probably one of the most eye opening and rewarding parts of our work. It was especially amazing to get to know what a big role the YMCA Togo plays in improving standards and providing support and rehabilitation for the prisoners and the establishment of a Legal Club within the prison. The Legal Club is made up of detainees who have been trained by experienced human rights and legal professionals to understand their legal rights as well as the workings of the Togolese judicial systems. They are then able to make legal applications to have their case heard by a judge and aid their co-detainees to do the same along with on-going support from the YMCA to ensure that cases are effectively processed through the court system.The Legal Club also worked closely with us to organise our classes providing us with names of those that would take part and we discussed with them our timetable.

​​In our first meeting with the Legal Club to discuss our classes I mentioned that I was an artist and discussed the possibility of running some art workshops with the detainees, this was unfortunately not possible due to the lack of space within the prison. One of the Legal Club members who is also an Artist very much liked this idea though and he showed his appreciation by passing on this piece to me a few weeks later that he made 'Welcome in Togo'!​Each team is given a Development Challenge budget as part of their placement to use to benefit their projects and the community. The team before us had gone over budget on their proposal to fund the building of a quarantine cell for the Prison which would be a temporary place for sick prisoners to go to help prevent the spread of infectious diseases. We agreed that this Quarantine Cell would be a huge health benefit in such an over crowded prison so we decided to use some of our budget to propose to pay for a carpenter and materials to finish of their planned work. The funds came through for this near the end of our placement so we were able to deliver some of the building materials to the prison ready for the building work to start!

Fitting in with our health education on Hygiene and Sanitation we installed 5 new Tippy Taps within schools and the local community. 845 students and members of the community were reached through awareness raising on the importance of the Tippy Taps.

For our activities at the YMCA youth centre, running every Wednesday and Friday afternoon, we had 173 attendees! Our main activities were sports, group games, dance, singing, theatre club, art workshops and teaching on the topics of health and how to be a good citizen.

Our work was not without challenge, we had to really pull together as a team to get our work done effectively, we had language barriers to overcome, adapting to the hot climate, many illnesses within the group and lots of bumpy, dusty motorbike taxi rides to get us where we needed to be. I will certainly be going back to visit this beautiful country though and the beautiful people that we worked, danced, laughed and learnt with that became our friends, family and community.

Team Atakpame at the end of our placement on our last night together in Togo!

My 'host family' in Hiheatro who welcomed me into their home and family for my time in Togo and gave me the best birthday party to remember!

Sounds like job well done Grainne. I'm sure many people would've been sorry to see you go. I hope you do manage to get back there. The time went very quickly here. Can't believe it's over 4 months since we saw you. Take care. Lots of love. Cathie xxx